Fest Rules

These rules have not yet been updated for the 2024 edition of this fest. Thank you for your patience!

About the Fest:

HP Soulmates Fest is an anonymous prompt-based fest celebrating the idea of soulmates and soulbonds! The heady idea that someone(s) are made for us has permeated history and literature. HP Soulmates Fest is looking for content that explores this beloved trope and staple alternate universe (AU) of the Harry Potter fandom.

Some questions to inspire you:

Are soulmates born or made? Does everyone have a soulmate? Can a person have multiple soulmates? How does one know they have a soulmate? How do you find your soulmate? Can a soulmate bond be broken? Are soulmates platonic, romantic and/or another form of love?

Who can submit?

All participants must be 18+ at the time prompting opens to participate. This is a hard and fast rule – if you are found in violation of this rule, you won’t be allowed to participate. Submissions will be done via AO3 so all participants will need an AO3 account to submit. You don’t need to prompt to claim and vice versa.

What types of content are allowed?

We are accepting art, fics, fics + art, and podfics. As long as it fits the theme of the fest, we’re looking for all genres (romance, horror, comedy, mystery, etc) and all AUs (Muggle, Omegaverse, etc.). Submissions can include any pairing/poly ship or no ship. This means it can include any characters from the HP Universe from any generation.

Fics must be longer than 1,000 words, with no maximum word count. Art submissions must show an equivalent amount of effort. Podfics must be of a fic longer than 1,000 words.

We do NOT accept content that has been AI generated. Work must be original to the fest and created by you (a human)!

Prompting

Prompting will open on May 15, 2023 and last through May 30.

Get those thinking caps on! Prompting will be done through Airtable. There is a 10 prompt per person limit.

For podfics: please only prompt podfics with easily verifiable author permission. Be sure to double check! Have you written a Soulmate AU? Then you can ask yourself!

You are allowed to self-prompt. If you submitted a prompt and it hasn’t been claimed, you are allowed to claim your own prompt.

Claiming

Claiming will open June 3, 2023 at noon EDT and last through July 15.

Claiming by proxy is permitted. We’ll email confirmations as soon as we can, but please note there’s a chance your first choice prompt may have already been claimed.

You are allowed one claim at a time. If you finish early, submit your claim AND the submission is approved by Fest Mods before claiming ends, you are allowed to submit another claim.

Each prompt can be claimed once for fic and once for art or once for fic and art.

Anonymity

This fest is fully anonymous. You can work with a reasonable number of alphas and betas, but please refrain from posting details publicly until after Reveals. (Artists are allowed to use their personal watermarks and podfics will not be anonymous as they should include an introduction with the podficcer’s AO3 username).

For potential betas: This your chance to help a fellow HP fan and see some quality content before it all gets unveiled! For participants: please remember that this fest is anonymous when posting on Discord or other spaces looking for a beta.

Discord

This year we will be hosting a HP Soulmates Discord server! This server is open to participants, past participants, and cheerleaders. This will include a channel to find beta readers. We will start opening this up shortly, so stay tuned for an invite!

Submitting

All written entries must be beta-read, rated, and tagged appropriately. We also highly recommend betas for artists and podficcers, as well! As mentioned, we will help participants find a beta, as needed.

Submissions will be reviewed before being added to the AO3 Collection (HP_Soulmates_Fest_2023) and you must add the mod account (hpsoulmatesmod) as co-creator so we can schedule posting for reveals (we’ll remove the mod account afterwards). If you are planning on gifting your work (a wonderful thing to do!), your work should NOT include any of the listed squicks/triggers, nor exceed the maximum rating.

Creators should fill in and email this template to the mods upon submission of their work to the fest collection. These templates will be used on tumblr to promote each work. The email subject line should read:

SUBMISSION - [PROMPT #] - [ART/FIC/PODFIC] by [YOUR AO3 USERNAME]

Fic

Title:

Author:

Prompt #:

Word Count:

Rating: (indicate General, Teen, Mature or Explicit)

Warnings: (Please warn for possible triggers and squicks.)

Notes: (You may put your beta’s name/initials here along with any other notes.)

Summary:

Link:

Art

Title:

Author:

Prompt #:

Art Medium:

Rating: (indicate General, Teen, Mature or Explicit)

Warnings: (Please warn for possible triggers and squicks.)

Notes: (You may put your beta’s name/initials here along with any other notes.)

Summary:

Link:

Podfic

Title:

Podficcer:

Written by:

Prompt #:(if applicable)

Podfic Length:

Rating:(indicate General, Teen, Mature or Explicit)

Warnings:(Please warn for possible triggers, squicks and loud/disturbing/unexpected noises.)

Notes:(You may put your beta’s name/initials here along with any other notes. Please also include a link to the original fic here)

Summary:(from the original fic)

Link: